Sunday, February 17, 2008

Soggy Sunday

Common Redpoll

As our weather usually goes around here, it goes from one extreme to the next. Yesterday was so beautiful, then today was rainy, windy and very mild. It started with freezing rain making everything very slippery.

I did not go out until later in the morning because of the icy roads. The main roads were just wet, but the gravel road were sheer ice. I stayed off them!

I drove along the St. Clair River and noted lots of ducks. I did not stop to scope them though, but most were Canvasback.

This morning I made a list of birds I saw from the house for the Great Backyard Bird Count. This is an annual event in mid February where anyone can submit a checklists of birds from any location in North America. Thousands of people take part in this citizen science.

Whether is serves any useful purpose or not, it is something fun for people to do and they are contributing to bird study.

Since I came up with a decent number of birds at Rondeau yesterday, I submitted a list of the 27 species I saw there.

My yard list (including anything flying over) was 16 species, about average. Included were the Pine Siskins that have hung around all winter. This is only about the third time that I have had them in the winter here. As well, four redpolls were on the list. I only get those every few years. A surprise was a Herring Gull flying over early this morning, since there is no open water very close.

Go to GBBC to check out the results of this year's Great Backyard Bird Count.